“The guys played great tonight. They have worked hard all year and have had to overcome a lot of adversity this year. It all game together tonight,” said head coach Jordan Huska.
It most certainly all came together for the Dell Rapid Quarriers on a cool, damp night in Madison. Dell Rapids upset the #2 ranked Madison Bulldogs in the opening round of the South Dakota 11A playoffs 14-13 on Thursday, October 25th.
Despite a rough start to the game, the Dell Rapids defense held strong the remainder of the game, and the offense was able to control time of possession to keep the Madison offense off the field.
The Bulldogs opened the game with a bang. Carter Bergheim took the opening kickoff 55 yards to the Dell Rapids 32 yard line. On the very first play for Madison, Tyler Tappe threw a 32-yard touchdown pass Jacob Unterbrunner to go ahead 6-0 just 15 seconds into the game. After Dell Rapids’ first offensive possession ended in a turnover on downs at the Madison 32-yard line, Tappe raced down the field for a 62-yard touchdown run with 6:18 to play in the quarter. After a made extra point, the Bulldogs led 13-0 after running just two offensive plays. Dell Rapids was able to drive into Bulldog territory two more times in the first half, and even had the ball at the Madison four-yard line with just seconds remaining in the second quarter, but both times the Bulldogs forced a turnover on downs. Madison held a 13-0 at halftime.
Dell Rapids again had the ball on Madison’s side of the field in the third quarter, but with 6:50 to play in the quarter, Madison forced Dell Rapids into their fourth turnover on downs. However, about a minute and a half later, the Dell Rapids defense put a spark into the team when Logan Ellingson intercepted a Tappe pass. That interception led to a four-yard touchdown run by Tyler Wood with 0:58 to play in the third quarter. Hunter Garry added the extra point to cut the Bulldog lead to 13-7.
The Quarrier defense got another big stop early in the fourth quarter. Dell Rapids forced Madison into a turnover on downs with 11:36 to play. The Quarrier offense continued the momentum converting on a third-and-long play, and then moments later converting on a fourth-and-long to keep the drive alive. The drive ended with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Eddie Price to Ellingson with 8:05 to play. Another Garry extra point gave Dell Rapids a 14-13 lead. The Dell Rapids defense forced Madison into a punt on their next drive. The offense wasn’t able to score, but ran over two and half minutes off the clock before punting the ball back to the Bulldogs.
With 1:30 to play, Tappe dropped back to pass and fired a pass to his right only to have it intercepted by Drew Van Regenmorter. The Quarrier offense took over with 1:24 to play leading by a point. Madison held Dell Rapids and used two of their three timeouts. On a Dell Rapids fourth down, Madison sacked Price for a turnover on downs at the Quarrier 38-yard line with 1:02 to play. Madison got the ball to about the Dell Rapids 13-yard line with :40 to play. An incomplete pass and sack put Madison back to the 17-yard line with :25 to go. Tappe scrambled on the next play out to his left, but was tackled in bounds to keep the clock running. Madison tried to get their field goal team on the field on fourth down to get a last-second, game-winning field goal, but the snap was low and the Dell Rapids defense ended the game by tackling the holder Brock Minnaert to secure the win.
The Quarriers ran a total of 85 plays for a total of 260 yards of offense, 109 passing yards and 151 rushing yards. Madison was held to just 48 plays for a total of 213 yards of offense, 94 of those yards coming on their first two offensive plays of the game. Dell Rapids was 6-18 on third down and 4-9 on fourth down. Madison was 3-10 on third down and 2-5 on fourth down.
Price was 7-21 passing for 109 yards and a touchdown. Ellingson had three catches for 59 yards and a touchdown. Wood had a catch for 19 yards, and Alex Kringen had a catch for 10 yards. Logan Stone had 11 carries for 49 rushing yards. Tatye Gleason finished with 14 carries and 44 yards. Kringen had 14 carries and 34 yards. Coby Maeschen had eight tackles and a sack. Price finished with six tackles. Van Regenmorter had five tackles, two sacks, and an interception. Ellingson also recorded an interception.
Dell Rapids (6-4) will advance to the semifinals. The Quarriers will travel to Dakota Valley to play the Panthers on Friday, November 2nd. The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.